All out for Sarah Jama!

Anger at the Ontario NDP’s decision to run a candidate against popular independent MPP Sarah Jama flared across the province, as the party clearly signalled it does not intend to mount any kind of serious fight against the Ford government.

 

Speaking on CBC, ONDP leader Marit Stiles said that Sarah Jama—the MPP expelled from the caucus last October for speaking in support of Palestine—would not be readmitted into the party and that the NDP will be running a candidate in her riding of Hamilton Centre.

 

Running a candidate against Jama – a popular MPP who has the support of the Hamilton Centre Independent Constituency Association – will split the progressive vote, possibly handing the poorest urban riding in Ontario to the Tories or Liberals. Marit Stiles would rather that than to admit that her decision to remove Jama was a disaster.

 

Sarah’s only crime is that she took a principled stand in support of Palestinians. Her censure is being appaluded by far-right Israel supporters. 

 

ONDP caucus members publicly said much the same thing that Sarah did about a week after her initial statement and expulsion—with some careful changes in wording to water it down just enough for their donors.

 

The expulsion reeks of the top-down approach of an increasingly irrelevant NDP, where caucus members are not allowed to speak their minds on crucial issues. They are only supposed to take their marching orders from a party that refuses to take a principled stand against genocide.

 

Worse still, it is impossible to look at the decision as anything other than a racist response.

 

Hamilton NDP MP Matthew Green stated that the expulsion “perpetuates a long history of racialized voices being dismissed and ignored in spaces where decisions are made.”

 

Attempts by the NDP brass and other caucus members to explain the situation only made matters worse. The general line is that Sarah was not a “team player” because she spoke out of turn rather than waiting for her marching orders from Styles. 

 

The NDP leadership also lied when they said that the decision to expel Jama was made by the whole caucus. MPP Jill Andrew said that she was not consulted on the decision. She wrote:

 

“I did not support this decision for a variety of reasons. I learned about this decision on Monday, October 23, 2023 at 11:11AM via email while sitting in my MPP seat in the legislature, when the decision was already made. The subsequent press release stated with support of our Ontario NDP MPPs a decision was made to remove the member. The release went on to conjure what I feel were stereotypical tropes often used to communicate about Black people, especially Black women, who are perceived as difficult. I expressed my concerns about this release to the leadership team and to my caucus members.”

 

Support for Sarah

 

Last October, In the immediate aftermath of the NDP decision to expel Jama, support flowed in from many activists and community leaders. At a rally in Hamilton, author and activist Desmond Cole said, “Stiles and the party have tried to paint our sister as an uncontrollable and unreasonable person and this is being done on purpose. It exploits all the tropes related to Sarah’s Blackness, her womanhood, her Muslimness and her disability.”

 

Jama has continued her work as an independent MPP and is building a new political movement. Her long time advocacy for the poor and marginalized, from people with disabilities to the homeless, as well as her clarity on issues of workers’ rights, racism and imperialism has galvanized a base in her riding.

 

At her nomination meeting on September 12, a wide range of speakers spoke of their support for Sarah. Among them were Anthony Marco, president of the Hamilton and District Labour Council, Fred Hahn, president of CUPE Ontario, and federal NDP MP Matthew Green.

 

Ron Wells, president of United Steelworkers local 1005, stated:

 

“I met Sarah about two years ago when Marit Stiles and the provincial NDP arranged a meeting with Hamilton Steelworkers looking to get our support for Sarah in the byelection. She’s always been visible on picket lines supporting workers, including when 1005 was locked out, supporting migrant workers in their fight for fairness, supporting healthcare and educational workers in their struggle against the Ford government. She’s always been a voice for marginalized groups that don’t really have a voice, homeless people, people living with disabilities, her work with ACORN, people fighting for fairness against greedy corporate landlords. We need leaders that won’t be silenced, intimidated or corrupted… Sarah is that type of leader. Full disclosure, I am still an NDP supporter but for the riding of Hamilton Centre provincially I am a Sarah Jama supporter and I hope all of labour is as well, steelworkers, autoworkers, CUPE, COPE, everyone.”

 

Local 1005 VP Jim McColl said, “I work in the coke ovens as a machine operator down at Stelco. We have members that die every year from what we breathe. We care about the environment too – and we also care about good paying jobs. And so does Sarah. She’s the transformative leader we need to champion the causes that matter most to us, like social assistance, environmental justice, housing, all those things. Another good thing is that Sarah also advocates for justice for injured workers, a $25 minimum wage, card certification for unions. You are the transformative leader we need.”

 

The NDP still has time to reverse this criminally stupid decision – but at present there is no indication that they will. This is a huge mistake.

 

At a moment when we need to accelerate our actions in confronting the many critical crises of capitalism today – centrally and most urgently, the ongoing genocide in Palestine – we cannot wait for a party consistently moving to the right. If the NDP refuses to reverse course, every progressive should flood Hamilton Centreto help Sarah retain her seat as a beacon for the kind of politics we desperately need.

 

Photo: Hamilton Centre Independent Constituency Association